


On the Same Dialect Continuum

by stellarparallax



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Bliss, Light Angst, M/M, Nurse! Keith, Professional Athlete! Shiro, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 03:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19845031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax/pseuds/stellarparallax
Summary: Shiro has always been one to downplay his pain, but recently, he’d gotten far worse about it. It was fine at first, but now he was doubled over with a hand pressing into his lower back. It didn’t take a doctor to know that he was certainly not okay. An experienced nurse like Keith definitely picked up on it.Shiro injured himself at the gym, but he refuses to let Keith take care of him. (Un?)fortunately for him, Keith is just as stubborn as he.





	On the Same Dialect Continuum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleWhiteTie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleWhiteTie/gifts).



> _Milkvetch; your presence softens my pains  
>  Balm of Gilead; cure, relief_
> 
> Request: Keith taking care of Shiro

Watching Shiro attempt to walk from the bathroom to the living room was a little like watching a car crash—it did no one any good, but Keith just couldn’t look away. Part of him was worried, of course. But that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary; Keith was always worried about Shiro. It was just hard not to be consumed by it when it was written all over his face that he was desperately trying to hide his pain.

“Shiro… let me—”

“I’m telling you, I’m fine. I just need to— ow, ow, ow, OW!”

Keith’s eye twitched. Shiro has always been one to downplay his pain, but recently, he’d gotten far worse about it. It was fine at first, but now he was doubled over with a hand pressing into his lower back. It didn’t take a doctor to know that he was certainly not okay. An experienced nurse like Keith definitely picked up on it.

It wasn’t even that it was anything serious. For heaven’s sake, he just pulled a muscle from pushing himself too hard at the gym. All he needed was a good back rub, maybe a few painkillers, and he’d probably be fine in a few weeks. Avoiding and trying to hide his pain, however, did nothing. 

On some level, though, Keith understood where he was coming from. 

“If you don’t want me to help, can you get someone else to take a look at it? A doctor… a therapist… Allura— Literally anyone?”

“I don’t want to bother Allura. She has the new babies and dogs to look after—”

“I’m sure she can give you five minutes. And she can leave them with Lance.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow.

“Touch é ,” Keith begrudgingly admitted. 

“And you know how I feel about doctors and therapists…”

“Then let me help,” Keith said as he reached out to massage Shiro’s back.

“No!” Shiro flinched, turning his back away from Keith.

“It’s not like I’m going to ride my bike in the middle of the night again! Besides, you know that I only got a few grazes and bruises from that.”

“Because you were getting fever meds. For me,” Shiro said firmly.

There it was. Shiro was still feeling guilty from that time. As frustrated as it made Keith, he knew that he’d feel the same way if the roles were reversed.

“Okay… Just take it easy, okay? I won’t do anything.” Keith raised his arms in surrender. 

Shiro lowered himself into the couch next to Keith. He looked over sheepishly and bit his lip. Keith knew that look. It meant that he was holding something back.

“What’s wrong?”

“I love you.”

Keith wasn’t convinced that that was all Shiro had to say, but he leaned back into an arm of the couch and spread his arms apart invitingly anyway. The pretense wasn’t fooling either of them, but it probably wasn’t worth pulling at that thread.

Shiro winced for a split second, then let himself free fall onto Keith’s chest. As he landed, he suppressed a whine.

Keith chuckled as he shook his head. Shiro was just so unbelievably stubborn. But he was also stubborn in ways that Keith appreciated, like his drive to improve himself every day or his unending persistence in how much he believed in their relationship. Even when Keith had his doubts, Shiro remained unchanging. And hell if that didn’t make Keith fall harder every time he thought about it. 

“I love you too, you big log.”

It didn’t take long for Shiro to drift off to sleep, which was Keith’s cue to switch the television off. Not that he was paying attention to whatever was on, anyway. He was too focused on absent-mindedly running his fingers through Shiro’s freshly-washed hair as he put together a plan of attack.

He had about six hours left to plan and possibly only one shot at executing it.

  
  


“Keith…” Shiro mumbled as he came to consciousness.

“I’m here, baby.”

Shiro peered his eyes open and barely made out that Keith was already fully dressed. “Where to?”

“I just need to go out for a bit. Go back to sleep, Shiro.” Keith kneeled to give Shiro a kiss on the lips, then the nose, then the cheek. Then he lifted Shiro’s head slightly to stuff a cushion underneath it for support. “I’ll see you later.”

“Mm.”

Keith put his coat on and wrapped his scarf around his neck. He turned to take one last look at Shiro wincing as he shifted his weight around. Then, he picked up his duffle bag that had been packed to bursting and walked out the front door.

* * *

* * *

Later that morning, Shiro was awoken by knocking on their front door. Slowly, he got off the couch. 

The night of sleeping on his front definitely helped to take the strain off his back, but not much. He was still in immense pain that, if he were being honest, he wish he let Keith help him with. But it was too late, at least till Keith got back from wherever he went that morning. He was probably at the garden show that he’d been anticipating for the past few months. 

“I’m coming, I’m sorry,” Shiro called out as he made his way to the door.

When he opened the door, all he saw was his fiancé with his hair slicked back and a… fake moustache? His face must have cycled through at least five different expressions—every one of them conveying his abject confusion. He just couldn’t come up with any reason that would even resemble logic. 

“Wha— Keith?”

“Non, non. I am not Keith, Monsieur. Je m'appelle Louis. I am a masseuse here to rub out your sore muscles.”

“I— hmm. What… I… Keith, why are you doing a terrible French accent?”

“I’m not Keith,” Keith asserted, this time in his regular speaking voice. “You can’t accept a massage from Keith, but you can from me.”

Shiro scanned his face, trying to get a read on him. Then he thought about what Krolia said when they first met. Keith had gone to the bathroom. So there they were, in the hospital cafeteria, speaking in hushed tones so that he wouldn’t hear if he decided to sneak up on them. 

_ “When he told me that he wanted to go to nursing school, I knew that he’d found his calling,” she had said.  _

_ “He cares about people so deeply.” His voice had been so full of love. Even he could hear it.  _

_ “You see, Keith has a language that not everyone hears. But to his patients? He’s loud and clear.” _

_ “How do I know if I’m hearing what he wants to say?” _

_ And he distinctly remembered the way Krolia looked at him when he said that. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. But when in doubt, he likes flowers.” _

_ “Flowers,” he had noted. _

_ “Especially the ones that aren’t cut. He loves watching them grow.” _

_ “That does sound like Keith.” _

_ “It’s just like him to want to take care of others. He can’t help himself.” _

“Okay,” Shiro relented. “Please, come in.”

He moved out of the way so that Keith could finally step out of the rain. He closed the door behind him and watched as Keith unwrapped his scarf, then took his coat off, revealing his nursing scrubs. 

“You didn’t have to go so hard, you know,” Shiro laughed.

Keith raised an eyebrow.

“Well, okay, you kind of did. So, what now?”

“I was thinking that we could take it to the bedroom.” Keith’s voice was devoid of humour.

Shiro smirked. “I don’t think my fiancé would appreciate that.”

Keith dropped his duffle bag on the floor and walked towards Shiro. He was only half a head shorter than Shiro, but he still went on his toes to tilt Shiro’s chin up and kissed him deeply. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

  
  


Shiro groaned as Keith dug his fingers into his back. His movements were slick and he knew exactly where Shiro’s sore points were. He definitely felt the tension melt off his muscles, leaving them warm, relaxed, and slightly tender. 

“That feels so good, babe.”

“And to think you refused this for a week.”

Shiro twisted himself so that he was facing Keith. “I was just—”

“I know.” Keith pressed a kiss at the corner of Shiro’s jaw. 

“It’s not just that… could you get off me?”

Keith lifted himself off Shiro’s back and sat next to him on the bed.

“And remove the moustache?”

Keith ripped it off instantly.

“Babe… you work so hard every day. And I wish I could do something to lighten your burden but… I just make things worse.” He looked away, avoiding Keith’s gaze. “I know you were actually planning to go to the garden show today since it’s your day off and I couldn’t even let you have that.”

The silence that came after was suffocating. It wasn’t like him to bare himself like that, but it was easy when it was with Keith. Perhaps Keith wasn’t the only one with a language that not everyone hears. And perhaps, the reason why Shiro heard him and felt heard by him was that they were close on the dialect continuum. 

When he finally looked up at Keith again, he was met with the softest smile that he’d ever seen from him. 

“I love you so much, Shiro.”

* * *

* * *

When Keith got home from work the next day, Shiro practically tackled him into a hug. 

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he laughed.

“Keep your coat on, I have something to show you,” Shiro said quickly as he pulled Keith back outside. 

Curious, Keith went along with it.

“So, I didn’t have much to do today because I did all the chores so quickly thanks to your magical hands,” he rushed through, then punctuated his sentence with a kiss to the cheek, “so I called Colleen and asked her about—”

“Babe, breathe.”

Shiro exhaled, then continued, “Long story short, she came over and taught me how to grow these plants!”

Somehow while escaping Keith’s notice, Shiro had already pulled out two cards with pictures of flowers. Keith took them and turned them over. On the flip side, there was information on how to care for them, how to prevent diseases, and the appropriate soil and fertiliser for them.

“Milkvetch… Balm of Gilead…” he read aloud.

“I know they’re kind of… unorthodox… but Colleen told me what they signify and I knew I had to get them. They’re both already transplanted in the backyard.”

Keith smiled. “Our first plants, huh.”

“First of more to come. My training pace has slowed down since the season ended so I’m going to use the time to build the garden you always wanted. And when the season starts again, I’ll hire a gardener. You’ll come home to your own garden show every day.”

Keith looked like he was in a trance as he made his way into their backyard and circled around the two new additions. As he went back to Shiro, his whole body was trembling.

“Shiro… I don’t know what to say.”

“Maybe you don’t have to say anything.”

But he did say something, just not with words. Every twist and drag of their parted lips against each other brought a whisper that echoed into the void of two parts passion and eight parts certainty. And as their noses bumped against each other, they felt what it truly was like to articulate. 

“I hear you,” Shiro whispered. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading till the end! Do feel free to scream at me [@artparallax](https://twitter.com/artparallax) on twitter.
> 
> Also, do check out LittleWhiteTie's writing [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleWhiteTie/)!
> 
> As usual, I would really appreciate it if you left kudos and comments! <3


End file.
